Postcards

[Andrew Upton]

1 hour ago, gunnerwalker said:

For me it was between that and the 1895-1902 India General Service Medal - which I considered mostly because the ribbon in the photo looked to only have two colour tones. But your example with the QSA shows the red and orange as the same colour tone and it’s probably the more likely award. Many thanks Andrew.

If that were the case then as rendered typically by the quirk of orthochromatic film the two green stripes would actually appear very dark against the purple stripes rendered somewhat lighter, eg:

[gunnerwalker]

2 hours ago, Andrew Upton said:

If that were the case then as rendered typically by the quirk of orthochromatic film the two green stripes would actually appear very dark against the purple stripes rendered somewhat lighter, eg:

Thanks for the examples, I agree now likely to be QSA.

[Gardenerbill]

I found this postcard amongst my fathers family photos, my paternal Grandfather A/L Cpl Leslie H Sheppard of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and derby) is 3rd from the left back row. My Grandfather was called up in June 1918 so I would date this photograph as summer 1918, there are no medal ribbons that I can see. All appear to be Sherwood Foresters except the sergeant who may be an instructor and hence this could be a training group. Can anyone help identify the sergeants cap badge?  There is an L/Cpl 4th from right back row and another left of the sergeant who appears to have a skill badge on his lower left sleeve as does the blurred man below left. The man bottom left at the end I think has a good conduct chevron and a wound stripe. The man 3rd from the right, bottom row has a mourning button.

 

[gunnerwalker]

36 minutes ago, Gardenerbill said:

I found this postcard amongst my fathers family photos, my paternal Grandfather A/L Cpl Leslie H Sheppard of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and derby) is 3rd from the left back row. My Grandfather was called up in June 1918 so I would date this photograph as summer 1918, there are no medal ribbons that I can see. All appear to be Sherwood Foresters except the sergeant who may be an instructor and hence this could be a training group. Can anyone help identify the sergeants cap badge?  There is an L/Cpl 4th from right back row and another left of the sergeant who appears to have a skill badge on his lower left sleeve as does the blurred man below left. The man bottom left at the end I think has a good conduct chevron and a wound stripe. The man 3rd from the right, bottom row has a mourning button.

 

The sergeant is from the North Staffordshire Regiment. Not sure about the badge for the man sitting next to him. To me it just looks like the horseshoe of a Farrier, but I believe this was worn on the upper arm above one’s rank chevron.

The man two along from your grandfather also has a different cap badge, though it’s hard to make out - I think probably Norfolk Regiment but Middlesex or South Lancashire are possible?

It’s a good photo and nice that you are able to identify your grandfather.

Edited 8 November , 2023 by gunnerwalker

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Gardenerbill said:

I found this postcard amongst my fathers family photos, my paternal Grandfather A/L Cpl Leslie H Sheppard of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and derby) is 3rd from the left back row. My Grandfather was called up in June 1918 so I would date this photograph as summer 1918, there are no medal ribbons that I can see. All appear to be Sherwood Foresters except the sergeant who may be an instructor and hence this could be a training group. Can anyone help identify the sergeants cap badge?  There is an L/Cpl 4th from right back row and another left of the sergeant who appears to have a skill badge on his lower left sleeve as does the blurred man below left. The man bottom left at the end I think has a good conduct chevron and a wound stripe. The man 3rd from the right, bottom row has a mourning button.

 

It’s a cracking photo and you’ve picked out most of the detail I think.  They have the look of a Training Reserve Battalion with the usual mix of teenagers and perhaps a few in their very early 20s.  The most common skill-at-arms badge visible amongst the men is the crossed rifles badge of men qualifying as marksmen (left forearm).

At centre rear is a more mature man wearing the badge of the Norfolk Regiment, who is most likely to be the ‘hut orderly’ (for the hut forming the backdrop), a job mostly selected from old soldiers.  These men kept an eye on the young soldiers during silent hours, oversaw the chores to keep things clean and during early stages of training assisted with such tasks as fastening puttees and assembling web equipment.

The sergeant is from the North Staffordshire Regiment.

The unit is probably the 13th or 14th Reserve Battalion, who were both at Brocton Camp (Cannock Chase) by 1918 as part of the 3rd Reserve Brigade.

Afternote: I see that I have reached similar conclusions to gunnerwalker. I don’t think the lance corporal wears a horseshoe, it appears to me to be the bottom part of a marksman’s crossed rifles badge.  The other cap badges are all Notts & Derby.

Edited 8 November , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Gardenerbill]

Thank you gunnerwalker and FROGSMILE for the additional information. According to my Grandfathers service papers he was transferred to 53rd (Y.S.) Bn T.R. Notts & Derby Regiment 3rd July 1918. Also you can see his skill at arms badge just visible on his left forearm, I have a portrait photograph of him that I posted here some time ago where you can clearly see the badge.

[FROGSMILE]

8 minutes ago, Gardenerbill said:

Thank you gunnerwalker and FROGSMILE for the additional information. According to my Grandfathers service papers he was transferred to 53rd (Y.S.) Bn T.R. Notts & Derby Regiment 3rd July 1918. Also you can see his skill at arms badge just visible on his left forearm, I have a portrait photograph of him that I posted here some time ago where you can clearly see the badge.

That fits perfectly with the youthful appearance of the majority of the group.  The 53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion (1st Reserve Brigade) were also at Cannock Chase, but located in the camp at Rugely.  The Armstrong huts were of course all very similar.  Many of the YS were eventually shipped out to France in the latter half of 1918 once they came of age.

Edited 8 November , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps 766 (Lincolnshire Regiment 3/17142) Private Charles William Grenville Robertson (commissioned into Essex Regiment, attached to the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 27 March, 1918).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BVRC-Great-War-Contingent_1914.jpg

[Gardenerbill]

This is the last image from my fathers photographs. I haven't managed to identify my grandfather but the man 4th from the left back row with the distinctive ears is identified in another post card with my grandfather as Pte E Straw.

Edited 8 November , 2023 by Gardenerbill

[FROGSMILE]

7 minutes ago, Gardenerbill said:

This is the last image from my fathers photographs. I haven't managed to identify my grandfather but the man 4th from the left back row with the distinctive ears is identified in another post card with my grandfather as Pte E Straw.

It’s a fine photograph that epitomises somehow the machinery of conscription during war.

[morrisc8]

German postcard taking the P out of the english. German has 100 on his hat.

[FROGSMILE]

On 08/11/2023 at 12:56, aodhdubh said:

Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps 766 (Lincolnshire Regiment 3/17142) Private Charles William Grenville Robertson (commissioned into Essex Regiment, attached to the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 27 March, 1918).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BVRC-Great-War-Contingent_1914.jpg

He’s a fine looking young man, typical perhaps of the junior officer losses in 1918, when a far greater proportion of the officer casualties in the front line were men who had been commissioned from the ranks, in comparison with the period before the Summer of 1916.

He wears the uniform of the Northamptonshire Regiment and there’s quite a good view of his discrete 2nd Battalion collar insignia, which was different to the 1st and other battalions, because it specifically commemorated icons of the old 58th Regiment of Foot, whose lineage it perpetuated (the design was very similar to the central motif of the original officers waistbelt clasp).  However, this was an unofficial practice and not well recorded, as it defied the Army dress regulations.  The badges are unsurprisingly very rare.

It’s notable too that he died serving with a regular battalion.

Edited 9 November , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Moonraker]

I have many (perhaps too many) postcards of tented camps in Wiltshire and many are very routine (almost boring). But I thought that this one was better than most. Taken by Marlborough photographer E H Roberts, it shows an ASC camp probably on Marlborough Common (north of the town) during the war. The town's High Street - the second widest in England - provided overnight parking for army lorries travelling from and to Avonmouth. There are other local postcard photographs, some taken from a height, and I have wondered whether the photographer stationed himself in the imposing two-storey cricket pavilion a third of the way up the college playing fields that may also have had troops camped on them, but all the references I've seen are to the Common being the site.

 

[gunnerwalker]

4 hours ago, Moonraker said:

I have many (perhaps too many) postcards of tented camps in Wiltshire and many are very routine (almost boring). But I thought that this one was better than most. Taken by Marlborough photographer E H Roberts, it shows an ASC camp probably on Marlborough Common (north of the town) during the war. The town's High Street - the second widest in England - provided overnight parking for army lorries travelling from and to Avonmouth. There are other local postcard photographs, some taken from a height, and I have wondered whether the photographer stationed himself in the imposing two-storey cricket pavilion a third of the way up the college playing fields that may also have had troops camped on them, but all the references I've seen are to the Common being the site.

 

Nice view giving a good idea of the scale. Would everything visible be just for ASC? And what size unit would a camp of that size hold (battalion, brigade, etc.)? 

[gunnerwalker]

35796 Pte. Frank Edwin Parker, Wiltshire Regiment

Enlisted 6th Feb 1917, discharged 14th Oct 1919

Lived at Kilmersdon, near Bath, and later in East Cranmore, near Shepton Mallet

[gunnerwalker]

A/203505 L/Cpl. Thomas E. Gerry of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Served in France with 1st Battalion and was awarded the Military Medal, gazetted 11th Feb 1919. At least one wound stripe visible.

[Stereoview Paul]

A pair of new recruits being measured in this newly acquired stereoview  - am I right in thinking the recruiting Sergeant is Royal Artillery, has an early or pre-war feel.

[FROGSMILE]

9 minutes ago, Stereoview Paul said:

A pair of new recruits being measured in this newly acquired stereoview  - am I right in thinking the recruiting Sergeant is Royal Artillery, has an early or pre-war feel.

He’s Royal Army Medical Corps and the photo dates from around the turn of the century and the second Anglo/Boer War.  Note that corps’ Red Cross arm badge between crown and stripes.  The other NCO, whose rank badge is out of sight, appears to be from an infantry regiment, given his round forage cap and narrow, scarlet trouser welt.

Edited 11 November , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[FROGSMILE]

On 08/11/2023 at 21:24, gunnerwalker said:

A/203505 L/Cpl. Thomas E. Gerry of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Served in France with 1st Battalion and was awarded the Military Medal, gazetted 11th Feb 1919. At least one wound stripe visible.

Very unusual to see the final pattern 1903 brown leather variant of the Slade-Wallace waist-belt, and Union locket, worn by a KRRC NCO.  Rifle units traditionally wore a black leather version of the belt with a S snake clasp instead. 

Edited 11 November , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Stereoview Paul]

1 hour ago, FROGSMILE said:

He’s Royal Army Medical Corps and the photo dates from around the turn of the century and the second Anglo/Boer War.  Note that corps’ Red Cross arm badge between crown and stripes.  The other NCO, whose rank badge is out of sight, appears to be from an infantry regiment, given his round forage cap and narrow, scarlet trouser welt.

Thank you, very much appreciated

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Stereoview Paul said:

Thank you, very much appreciated

I’m glad to help, thank you for sharing such a super image.

[gunnerwalker]

3 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

Very unusual to see the final pattern 1903 brown leather variant of the Slade-Wallace waist-belt, and Union locket, worn by a KRRC NCO.  Rifle units traditionally wore a black leather version of the belt with a S snake clasp instead. 

Is the black leather belt unique to the KRRC? Not sure of the regimental evolution of the KRRC, but is that a tradition retained from the green-jacketed 60th Rifles and their black uniform facings?

[FROGSMILE]

17 minutes ago, gunnerwalker said:

Is the black leather belt unique to the KRRC? Not sure of the regimental evolution of the KRRC, but is that a tradition retained from the green-jacketed 60th Rifles and their black uniform facings?

No the black belt was worn by all rifle regiments both regular and auxiliary (volunteer rifle corps), but the old 60th KRR and the 95th RB were the most senior of these.  The 60th had scarlet facings, it was the RB that had the black facings.

[gunnerwalker]

10 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

The 60th had scarlet facings, it was the RB that had the black facings.

Right you are. I was misremembering my Anglo-Zulu War uniforms. Many thanks

[FROGSMILE]

9 hours ago, gunnerwalker said:

Right you are. I was misremembering my Anglo-Zulu War uniforms. Many thanks

Here is a view of it in use.